Aldrich
A human male who succeeded Chane in the role of the Guardian. Initially passed over by Tyros, who had sensed the coldness in him, Aldrich felt slighted and nurtured bitterness inside him. He rose to power by allowing his predecessor to die, and went on to become an enemy of those he had once stood with. As a Crew Member Aldrich met Tyros when Dark Tyros is using the Eye of Tarsus to bring about changes in people. Aldrich is taken aboard Tyros's ship, but his partner, Skorio, is refused due to Tyros sensing a darkness inside him. Traveling with Tyros, Aldrich quickly rises to be his second due to his quick decision making, but there remains a distance between the two due to Aldrich's militaristic personality conflicting with Tyros's newfound belief in strength of compassion. When the Gaelix escaped its imprisonment during a solar flare, Tyros sent Aldrich and Laura to guard the shrine in case the Gaelix somehow beat them there. Aldrich expected an armed assault similar to the last time the Gaelix had fought its way to the shrine, but was unable to detect the Gaelix sneak past in the guise of a small, mouselike robot. As the planetoid collapsed, Aldrich led Amy and Chane in running to Sossofurwhath's ship, while Tyros, Laura and Bryan ran to Lossoriawath's ship. Aldrich watched helplessly as the Gaelix powered up and Tyros sacrificed himself to destroy it. Tyros told Chane he would be the Guardian now, and Aldrich stiffened, taking it as a personal insult. He knew Tyros thought Chane's good heart made him a good man, but it also made him weak, and Aldrich knew this was a mistake. Aldrich grits his teeth and follows orders while Chane consistently fails to perform his tasks. Eventually, they find themselves in a situation where Chane believes that the only way to deactivate the machines is to divert the power through himself, but he doesn't know that Aldrich has taken over the control room. Aldrich watches this on live camera, his fingers trembling on the control switches. Amy finds Chane and Chane smiles, comforting her. He dissolves into a golden mist and blows away. Aldrich loses much sleep over his murder of Chane, and resolves he will bring back the fearsomeness that the title of Guardian once had. First Stage When Aldrich took over as the next Guardian, his only companion is Amy. Their friendship becomes more and more strained as she sees him becoming more and more cruel. Aldrich tracks down Takara and the newmans, and is guided by a man named Orson. Orson irritates Aldrich, as he requires constant protection. Takara uses his lifelink technology to bond a machine to Orson, hoping to forestall Aldrich's approach. To his shock, Aldrich kills Orson without a second thought. Takara flees. Aldrich survives encounters with both Dark Tyros and Fenrin. He then encounters an ultra-fast swordsman named Kalve, given the ability to move at super-speed when Tyros killed Krulem. He escaped the mine collapse with his power and began tracking down the man who blackmailed his family so he would be forced into work in the mines. Aldrich captures him, and Kalve ends up joining the crew despite Amy's objections. Kalve's fierce natures is complimentary to Aldrich's, but at Amy's insistence Kalve is forced to hang up his sword. Another of Takara's schemes is foiled by Aldrich, which involved use of the insects from Scilis 6. Aldrich orders Kalve to kill them all, and although the speedster hesitates, he carries out this order and butchers the infant queen and her offspring while Amy watches in horror. This begins her path of keeping secret communication with Takara. Aftermath of First Stage and the Time Distortion While Takara is imprisoned on board the ship, he escapes and sabotages the time reactor. This causes strange temporal anomalies. Kalve runs at full speed down an endless hallway on board the ship, chasing after the sound of Amy screaming. Amy wanders the empty ship, followed by a strange, distorted version of herself. Aldrich himself is marooned down on a planet for 50 years. After Amy defeats herself and frees Kalve, they take control of the ship again and fly down to meet Aldrich, dying of old age. Aldrich says his time on the planet has made him see goodness, aided by a man named Ted. He dies a pacifist. Kalve realizes that the reactor is still leaking time radiation, and they are still trapped on the ship. Amy recasts her other self, through the good lens of her personality instead of the evil. She enters the time distortion, and Kalve shatters besides her as she steps into it. She finds the moment in time where Takara started this and undoes it all. Reality collapses back into shape, and she is destroyed as she can no longer exist. The other Amy awakens back before the distortion, with all the memories of the good Amy. Kalve and Aldrich do not remember what happened. Amy keeps this a secret for some time, hoping it means Aldrich can be turned back to the light. Second Stage Kalve and Amy face Fenrin on their ship while Aldrich wrestles a sentient Eye of Tarsus on the dead world where Ojgesxgikk once lived. He buries it alive, dooming it to writhe in terror forever in the presence of all the dead around it. When he returns, Fenrin is gone, having made a secret pact with Kalve to hunt Takara. Aldrich goes to the reservation world and meets Ted. Their camp is being invaded by the meat trees. Amy finally reveals to him that during the distortion he died here a pacifist, having been taught peace. Aldrich rejects this, and charges a meat tree, burning it down with a torch as well as half the dining hall. He and Ted invent the first inoculation for it, and give it to Kalve after he is hit. Aldrich is reunited with Skorio, and is happy at first to have his friend by his side again, but they quickly realize they have each changed and no longer are compatible. A livestock cloning facility is infiltrated by Sklegge pirates, one of whom injects his DNA into it. Aldrich wipes out all the clones with a disease programmed to take advantage of a flaw in the pirate's genetics. Called back to Earth by John Beckett, Aldrich tracks a mysterious figure that has been stalking Kyle and Lucy. He and Amy are captured by newmans, and discover this was a trick by Takara, who also holds Fenrin captive. Aldrich is interrogated by Takara and a newman named Flint, who wants to find the newmans that Aldrich banished. Kalve and John enter the base and rescue Aldrich, also freeing two brothers who had been mutated by Takara into gigantic apelike monstrosities. Their names are Erik and Brody. Fenrin escapes and Aldrich meets with Skorio to discuss creating a militant team to provide backup like those once led by Kent and Nok. Aftermath of Second Stage and the Ultimate Invasive Species Aldrich and company are drawn a a tropical jungle/swamp where xeno-agricultural corporate attempts to settle the territory have been fiercely fought against by the natives. The plot thickens when Aldrich discovers the conflict has been engineered by Dark Tyros, who believes that a race of snake-men exists deep in the volcanic mountain range. If Dark Tyros believes it, Aldrich believes it too. Dark Tyros bombs a convoy and poisons a water supply. Aldrich kills a reaving party, and war breaks out. Aldrich convinces the mercenary company that something has been pupating in the mountains, and sends five teams to each location he believes the snakes exist in. Kalve leads one, Amy leads another, Aldrich leads the third, and the other two are led by mercenaries, kind Amara and crude Danyg. Kalve discovers Dark Tyros has made this a trap. He and his men are attacked by a gargantuan burrowing snake man, and he runs to Amy just in time to see a venomous snake man take out her squad and bite her. He picks her up and races her to the tribes, hoping one will know the cure. A witch-doctor called Domino helps her. Erik and Brody chased off Dark Tyros as he was trying to open the tomb, and stand guard. A lone soldier from Kalve's party tells them of the conflict and promises to guard the tomb. Erik and Brody then fight against Ogmad, the giant snake, and Erik is killed. Aldrich races to gather the survivors, and finds Amara's group slaughtered by something. He does not look very closely, feeling sick when he thinks he recognized Amara's face on the pockmarked flap of skin lying near the cave's entrance. With Danyg's group, he sees many corpses. Danyg, however, is still alive, spinning in circles and firing at the rocks. He throws a grenade and Aldrich sees the ground shift, and realizes the snake is camouflaging itself. He picks up Danyg and they escape, rescuing Brody from Ogmad. Amara's successor, Noven, meets with Danyg and the other leaders. Aldrich finds that threats of war from the natives have ended in response to this new threat. Domino describes the snakes as the "ultimate invasive species." Aldrich, on a hunch, goes with Kalve out to the unopened cave to meet with the guards there. Aldrich suspects Ogmad may have been able to burrow his way into the other, softer, prisons. His suspicion confirmed, he realizes that hundreds of the snakes have flooded the swamp. He orders immediate action, and is vetoed by corporate representative Brill. Surprisingly, Danyg speaks up against him. He severs the contract they had with him and instead will deal with the situation how they see fit. Brill says what they are doing is illegal, but the mercenaries go over to Aldrich. Three locations are fortified to protect the humans against snakes. Noven is shocked when some of the tribes refuse to cooperate. Ogmad and the leader of all the snakes, Quond, who is capable of camouflage, invade one settlement and lead an invasion, killing all present. Aldrich discovers Brill has slipped away in the night. Noven is bitten with venom during an attack, and his helicopter goes down over the jungle. He warns Aldrich about the diggers. Aldrich begins to fear the possibility of death. He receives a message from Domino which shocks him. The witch doctor has killed Brill and everyone who went with him. The snakes are meant to take their place in this food chain and to dominate it. Aldrich asks the snakes for a parley, but they only agree to live in the mountains if they send human sacrifices every month. Aldrich tells Amy he feels hopeless, and she tells he that he dare not lose hope because he is the only reason everyone else is holding it together. Aldrich doesn't see an option, so he talks with the other leaders and agrees to meet the snakes. He agrees to their terms. Amy is furious that he gives up, and plots an assassination attempt. She sees Aldrich for the first time since the announcement while he is talking to Danyg and Kalve at the other base, and she can barely face him. Amy attempts to poison the snakes, which Quond tastes and laughs, saying it won't work on their body chemistry. Aldrich is confused until he realizes Amy has betrayed him. He casts Amy out and Quond makes fun of his feeble attempt. Aldrich's expression darkens and he gives the signal. Concealed gunmen pop out of hiding and open fire on the feasters. Quond is wounded, but he and Ogmad flee. Aldrich kills the snakes outside, and runs to the wall. Outside, the army of snake men is being attacked. Aldrich sees a blur of motion that leaves corpses of snakes behind. He sees a massive ape-man smashing the snake men beneath his fists. Amy is shocked, and Aldrich tells her to stay inside. The next hour is cold butchery. Aldrich personally tracks down and confronts Quond. Quond spits at the notion that he is the ultimate invasive species. Humans are the ultimate invasive species. They extinguish all life they cannot coexist with. And yet the role of the Guardian is to protect them! Aldrich considers this and then kills Quond. Danyg and Brody stay behind, but Noven comes along with Aldrich, having been found in the jungle by Danyg alive due to the treatment he recieved before his chopper went down. Third Stage Aldrich, Amy, Noven and Kalve visit a hospital on an alien world to visit a terminally diseased Cuik. Aldrich notices armed guards around her. She gives some uncharacteristic sentiments and pulls Aldrich close for an embrace. Aldrich had met Cuik only once before, and knows something is up. When in an embrace, the Sklegge whispers that this is a trap. The guards aren't the worst of it. Something is coming. Kalve investigates impacts outside and is captured by red and green veiny, web-like creatures. Aldrich kills one of the guards. The soldiers panic when they realize the creatures are coming and all fight them off. Noven and Amy hide and the creatures corner Aldrich and the others. A soldier realizes they only want Aldrich, and tries to throw him to them. Cuik leaps on him and her throat is cut. Aldrich howls with anger and is taken. The creatures were trained by Takara to capture targets. Takara again believes Aldrich knows the whereabouts of his people, who may have been attacked by the snakes. Kalve is too dangerous, but Takara is unwilling to kill him and alienate Aldrich. Instead, he implants a miniature Gobulin reactor in his forearm, which effectively prohibits Kalve from ever using his power again. If he were to try and remove it, it would rip his blood vessels and kill him. Aldrich is intrigued, wondering where the newmans went, and helps Takara until Noven and Amy rescue him. Aldrich follows a raven to a man grieving for his murdered wife. He discovers a man in possession of the cube, only programmed with different DNA. The woman had her memories downloaded into a non-human body. A raven body. Aldrich discovers this and tries to stop the husband from killing the man responsible. However, the husband is shot by the man during the confusion. As he dies, Aldrich gives him a rudimentary neural connection to the cube, and when he dies he regenerates as a raven, albeit of the male gender. The two fly away and Aldrich tells Amy he destroyed the cube, but he has secretly kept it. A lone survivor of Schogo-Nof's race attempts to go back in time to commit genocide against the people who wiped out his. Aldrich's attempts to stop him result in a more severe time distortion occurring. Noven is caught in a looping forest, Kalve is faced with people from his past and some from his future, Amy walks through a stone temple and behind each door is a chapter of history from the people who once lived there and Aldrich travels along the killers life. Kalve meets his brother Reeve, who attacks him with a sword. Kalve realizes he has let speed compensate for skill and loses to his brother. The history between them is revealed. Noven sees Amara age to death in the forest, and finds Danyg, who claims to be really there. Amara returns and is killed by a predator. Aldrich also dies next to Noven, and a little of Aldrich and Amara goes into both Noven and Danyg, knocking them unconscious. Meanwhile, the real Aldrich goes around and around, watching the killer age and grow. Finally, Amy reaches the point in history where the killer is born, and she watches in horror as Aldrich murders him in his crib. This action frees them from the distortion, but does not change the fate of Schogo-Nof's people. Amy is in shock when she returns to the ship. She takes the Guardian's pistol and kills Aldrich with it, and wounds Kalve when he returns. She then leaves, and Kalve begins hunting her. Aldrich becomes the first Guardian since the first to be buried on Earth, as both Chane and Tyros left no bodies behind. His was a small ceremony, as he had few who cared for him, and in later years many would wish to dig up his corpse and expel it. Those who attended his original burial included Kalve, Danyg, Nhag'Lef, John, Ted, Skorio and several members of Skorio's force. Aftermath of Third Stage and First Rebirth When Dark Tyros escapes Haond he steals the cube, which ejects a new Aldrich. Dark Tyros takes advantage of this to manipulate the genetic code. He kills and re-kills Aldriches as they are produced until he has conditioned him to be insane. He gleefully releases the mutant Aldrich to see what he will do. The pale, wormlike creature is a far cry from the once proud Guardian Aldrich, and barely recognizes humans as human. He sees weakness and strength, so as a mercy he does not target the society's strong. He bombs a homeless shelter, and continues bombings as he tries to get the new Guardian's attention. The first elected Guardian, Danyg, stops the next bombing with the help of Kalve and the newly rebuilt cybernetic Noven. Danyg tracks the bomber's location, and finds that the apartment is occupied by zombies. It is a trap. Danyg is then attacked by a weak, fleshy creature which pulls a gun on him. Danyg wrestles the gun away and realizes it is the Guardian's pistol. Aldrich laughs and reveals his identity, and he believes Danyg has stolen his title. Rather than be captured, Aldrich allows himself to be consumed but taunts Danyg with the knowledge that he'll be back. Second Rebirth When Aldrich regenerates, Dark Tyros chides him for his foolish plan. Aldrich's new form is more physically strong and he begins to train in the way of the sword, sparring against Dark Tyros' companion Reeve. Aldrich eventually is good enough to beat Reeve, but not enough to beat Dark Tyros. Aldrich, manipulated by Dark Tyros, slowly builds an empire and soon Danyg has to muster all the force he can to launch a counteroffensive. It culminates in an attack on Aldrich's stronghold. Kalve breaks into the depths and confronts Aldrich in the throne room. Aldrich orders Reeve to kill Kalve, and the two fight. Kalve cuts off Reeve's sword hand but refuses to deal the final blow. He instead attacks Aldrich. Aldrich defends himself first with a sword hidden in the throne's armrest, but he is unprepared and the sword falls over the side of the bridge. Aldrich's bracelets expand into armor and he uses these to deflect Kalve's attacks until he is brought down. Before he can be killed, Reeve blows off Kalve's sword hand and shoots him over the edge. Aldrich claims Kalve's glove and uses it to call the sword into his hand. Aldrich and Reeve escape, each going into hiding. Aldrich posts five men outside, but a commotion ensues and Aldrich is faced by a hooded figure who has killed all his men. Kalve faces off against Aldrich. They each use their glove to pull Kalve's sword towards them. Kalve lets it go, then at the last second pulls on it again. This causes the sword to swing midair and cut into Aldrich. Kalve rushes forward and cuts off Aldrich's hand and guts him then cuts off his head. Third Rebirth The cube still in his possession, Aldrich regenerates again. With Reeve now dead, Aldrich contacts Dark Tyros, who now works with Takara. Takara grafts Aldrich into a gigantic metallic exo-suit, and Aldrich ends up rescuing him from Fenrin, Beth, Noven and Danyg. Takara has found the missing place where his people have gone to, and begins to initiate creating a rift to bring through their world. This occurs using his advanced technology near the gravitational field of a black hole. Aldrich attacks Danyg, and the time reactor begins to melt-down. Danyg sets the ship to fly itself into a black hole. He shoots the bay window and he, Aldrich, Beth and Noven are ejected into space. He gives Beth his pack, allowing her to escape with Noven. Danyg and Aldrich fall towards the black hole, and interact with the time meltdown on their way, resulting in another time distortion. Aldrich finds himself back in the stone temple from Haond, except with tall black doors instead of the altar of the blue pillar. As he attempts to continue fighting Danyg, his armor falls apart and he rewinds, going through his past rebirths until he is at his original form. Three doors open and three men enter. Danyg recognizes none of them, but Aldrich does. "You," he snarls at Chane. His eyes narrow at Tyros. "Tyros. Which makes you..." he looks at the man in the middle. Undoubtedly, this is him. The Guardian. They judge him unfit to bear their name, and the three Guardians throw him through the black doors. With the cube captured by Danyg, this is Aldrich's final end. Legacy Aldrich was an important figure to Danyg as he represented the danger of succumbing to darkness. Nhag'Lef wanted to purge Aldrich from history when he found out, but Danyg insisted it was important to remember what happened to him. A part of his memories and personality was in both Danyg and Noven, and so he lived on in them. In the Disrupted Timeline In this timeline, Aldrich disregarded the other Guardians, knowing he could not count on them. He acquired a Thrakr magician's staff, which allowed him to use Thrakr magics on a limited level. He teams up with the Primordial in the body of Dark, convincing him to search for the Elder Race, as they might have knowledge about what caused this universe to exist. They take off with Sossofurwhath in his ship, escaping an attack by Zach Dawson, Necrobane, the Prime Magician and Team Black. When they stop to repair the ship, they meet Adam, and it is revealed they have all been led here by visions. Sossofurwhath claims this is proof they are being assembled by something cosmic. They again fight off Zach's team with the recently arrived Guardian and Xenobane. Aldrich waits for some time for the Elder Race to arrive, and is disgusted when they vaporized Sossofurwhath for insulting them. He discovers the nature of this composite universe and is denied further answers. When the Guardian's boarding party invades the ship, Aldrich asks the Elder Race for help and he and Adam are teleported to the planet's surface. Aldrich trains Adam and takes part in the Guardian World War. During this time, he and Adam capture Vizahndro and experiment on him, leaving him mutated and scarred. Eventually, Aldrich is killed during the war and his apprentice goes mad, wandering off into the mountains to die. In the Iterations Sequence After the Disrupted Timeline, the Iterations Sequence occurred as a result of a confused universe which was restored by Viper, Guardian Amara and Guardian Thamus in the Iterations Sequence #Seventh Iteration. In Fifth Iteration, Guardian Chane had ruled with an iron fist, until Aldrich and Skorio rose up against him and allowed Guardian Amara to take control.